TCC and Non-Duality
Advaita in Sanskrit means Non-Duality. This is a difficult concept for most people as we look about us and see multiple objects. But what we see are only transformations, not permanent forms, whether we are speaking of a chair, a tree or a human being. Each exists provisionally but is certainly not lasting. One day the tree may become the chair and the human body will be eaten by worms. The I that observes all this may disappear and become another I. To bank on permanence is to promote suffering.
When we perform T’ai Chi Chih properly we feel the results. Since we are, essentially, a conflux of moving energies, stimulating and balancing the Intrinsic Energy (Chi) affects our whole being. The effects seem to be personal, but, in truth, they are widespread. Just as our Enlightenment is saving all beings, so does the balancing of the Universal Energy affect both the outer and the inner.
So many students have written me about how their lives have changed with the practice of T’ai Chi Chih. Those who truly practice note that their attitudes change – and others notice it, too. We do not heal symptoms; we become whole.
So, to practice regularly and sincerely is to promote the positive in this world; we reap the benefits. This is Advaita in action.
Photo: TCC originator Justin F. Stone practices in his home in Albuquerque, NM in the early 1980s.
Reprinted with permission from the November 2015 and Spring 1988 issues of the TCC journal, The Vital Force.